DCINY Opens Season at Carnegie Hall, 1/20-21

Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY) opens its 2013 season on Martin Luther King Day weekend with a two-day festival of moving and powerful choral music: The Sounds of War and Peace, Chapters 1 and 2.

Chapter 1, War on Sunday evening, January 20, features the Carnegie Hall premiere of Jonathan Willcocks's epic A Great and Glorious Victory. A tribute to Lord Nelson and the British Navy's victory over The Combined French and Spanish fleets, the work also celebrates the sailors from all three nations who set aside politics to help each other survive a severe storm at sea which took place in the aftermath of the battle. Texts for the work are drawn from contemporary accounts of the battle, the Book of Common Prayer, the Latin Requiem Mass, as well as from the words of Nelson himself. The composer conducts the Distinguished Concerts Orchestra, the Distinguished Concerts Singers International, and tenor Daniel Shirley.

The program also features Francesco Núñez conducting the orchestra and singers in Music for Future Peacemakers, a series of choral works representing the rhythms and sounds found in diverse cultures - each embodied with a message of hope. Featured works are by Karl Jenkins, Léo Delibes, Aaron Siegel and Jim Papoulis in addition to Núñez's own Three Dominican Folk Songs and Misa Pequeña Para Niños (movements 1-3). A 2011 MacArthur Fellow, Mr. Núñez is a leading figure in music education, and the founder of the award-winning Young People's Chorus of New York City, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this season.

Chapter 2, Peace, taking place on Martin Luther King Day as well as the evening of the Presidential Inauguration, Monday, January 21, celebrates peace with the U.S. premiere of Karl Jenkins's Songs of the Earth along with his acclaimed The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace. Commissioned in association with the Cultural Olympics, Songs of the Earth presents an ancient Greece-inspired look at the earth's creation out of "khaos." The Armed Man, commissioned by the Royal Armouries Museum for the Millennium celebrations, was dedicated to victims of the Kosovo crisis. The work has since been performed over 700 times in 20 different countries. The January 21 performance will be highlighted by a showing of The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace film, a moving visual representation of the work which utilizes archival footage of war and its aftermath.

DCINY has played a crucial role in bringing the music of Welsh composer Karl Jenkins, one of the most prolific and popular composers in the world today, to US audiences. The company has presented three world premieres and nine US premieres of Jenkins' works.